I grew up on the Southeast coast of North Carolina. The weather is humid and subtropical. The winters are very mild and the hot summer days are often followed by short rain storms. I did not realize how much the ocean breezes cooled the air until I moved about an hour-and-half inland to attend college. The summer air was so humid and thick you could cut it with a knife!

The good side, as a gardener, is I could grow so many tropical species down there! Now I am two-and-half hours from the coast and the winters are just a bit colder but not by much thanks to climate change.

Crepe Myrtles are a very popular tree or large shrub throughout the South. The flowers originally came in shades of red and pink but now there are whites and lavenders and purples. There are also a few sections with burgundy foliage, also.

NCSU has a very nice list of the cultivars with descriptions of flower color and growth habits:

Beautiful! I love crape myrtles, especially the tall ones (trees). I was going to plant one but was unsure if it would survive the winter here (zone 6) but recently I saw a house that had 2 beautiful specimens, so now I’m on the lookout for a purple one.

I’m especially fond of the dark, ruby red variety, though it’s not very common. Crepe Myrtles are so beautiful when they’re decades old and tall with huge, overflowing canopies, lining the streets. Nice pics of Cameron Village!